THE CLIENT
Established in 1983, Fastway Couriers operates a freight and logistics network across Australia and New Zealand. With more than 900 franchise partners, the company serves some 95,000 clients from individual consumers to large retail brands. Last year, the company became part of international courier company Aramex and now has access to a network that spans the globe.
THE CHALLENGE
For more than 20 years, Fastway Couriers had relied on a conventional key phone system to meet its telecommunication requirements. The system comprised of five incoming phone lines and a fleet of nine desk-based phone handsets.
Fastway Couriers Administration Manager Russell Jackson says that, while the system had served the company well for an extended period, its limitations meant it was time to find a replacement.
"We could see that, in times such as the COVID-19 crisis, we needed to have the ability for staff to work remotely if required. This was simply not possible with our existing phone system as all calls had to he handled in the office.”
The existing system was also not easily scalable. If additional staff were hired, it would be a complex and expensive exercise to install and configure extra handsets.
“ Earlier this year, working with our technology partner Viatek, we set out to find a suitable alternative and deploy it as quickly as possible,” he says.
THE SOLUTION
After carefully examining a range of alternative telephony platforms on the market, a decision was made in March 2020 to deploy a unified communications system from Access4.
"The solution appealed to us because we could see it was able to deliver the level of performance and flexibility that we were looking for,” says Russell. “It also could give us the ability to quickly scale user numbers if our operations required more resources.”
The Access4 platform was also appealing for Fastway as it is fully cloud based. This removed the need for any new on-premise equipment and meant a deployment could be completed very quickly.
Working closely with Fastway, the company began installation of the new platform in early March 2020 and had it fully operational within two weeks.
THE BENEFITS
Once the new Access4 phone system was up and running, staff quickly began to enjoy some significant benefits.
"It made us feel that what we had been using was only one step above stone tablets. The new platform has totally changed the way we manage and deal with callers.”
Rather than having constantly ringing desk phones around the office, all incoming calls are placed in a queue where they can be answered in the order that they have arrived. If one person is already on a call, the next incoming call can be automatically routed to the next available person.
"We have noticed that call quality has also improved significantly,” he says. “This makes it much easier to understand clients and ensures there is no misinterpretation of details and bookings.”
While staff have not yet had to work from home as a result of COVID-19 disruptions, Russell says it is good to know that capability is now in place.
"Staff could work from home using nothing more than their mobile handset and operate in the same way they do when in the office. Our customers would not notice any difference and our services could continue without disruption.”
Russell says the new Access4 platform has also delivered some welcome savings with telephony costs being reduced by “several hundred dollars” each month. He says Viatek continues to provide technical support for the new infrastructure but there have been very few problems encountered during the first few months of operation.
“I am confident we now have in place a phone system that can grow with the company and support operations well into the future,” he says. “Viatek continue to be a valuable partner for us and will help to ensure the system provides the performance and features that we require.”
